Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

“ Every mother suffers, I’m not even saying at the sight of her drunken son, but at mere a thought of this possibility, any master avoids a drunkard employee, every uncorrupt person is ashamed of himself that he was drunk. Everyone knows that drunkenness is bad. But here the educated, enlightened people get drunk and yet they are quite confident that there is nothing here is not only shameful and wrong, but that it is even cute, and with pleasure and laughter recall amusing episodes of their past drunkenness. ”

“ It’s gone so far that the most disgusting orgy, during which the old men influence the young ones to get drunk, orgy that repeats annually in the name of education and enlightenment, does not insult anyone, and does not prevent anybody, during drinking and after drinking, from rejoicing at their high-pitched feelings and thoughts, and from boldly judging and criticizing other people's morals and especially of those crude and ignorant people.
Every crude man considers himself guilty if he is drunk, and asks all for the forgiveness for his drunkenness. ”

“ So don't corrupt them and know that as it was for Noah, so it is for every peasant, and the same it is and will be for everyone — it is a shame not only to get so drunk to scream, swing, stand on tables and do all sorts of nonsenses, but it’s a shame even without any need, in commemoration of the day of education, to eat delicacies and to stupefy yourself with alcohol. Do not corrupt youths, don’t corrupt surrounding you servants by your example. ”

“ Everyone knows, and you know, that before any other civil virtues it’s essential to abstain from vices, that any indulgence is bad, especially the indulgence in wine is the most dangerous because it kills the conscience. ”

“ You can ask yourself a question: what is more prominent: education, which is circulated among people via reading public lectures and museums, or that savagery that is maintained and distributed among people by spectacles of such celebrations like the celebration of the January 12th, celebrated by the most enlightened people of Russia? ”

“ After all, hundreds and hundreds of people who serve you, bring you wines and foods, carry you home, - all these people, and live people, who, just like for all of us, are puzzled by the most important questions of life: what is good, what is bad? Whose example to follow? After all, it's good that all these servants, doormen, carriers, Russian country people don't consider you what you yourself think of yourself and wish that others believed you — the representatives of education. Because if they were, they, by looking at you, would have been disappointed in any education and would despise it ”

“ I think if all lectures and museums would have disappeared, and together with them such celebrations and dinners would stop, and cooks, maids, janitors, carriers would pass in their conversation to each other that all the enlightened people they serve never celebrate holidays by stuffing themselves and getting drunk, but know how to have fun and talk without wine, then education would have lost nothing. ”

“ It's horrible that people, standing, in their opinion, at the highest level of human education, are not able to commemorate the day of education another way rather than, for the continued several hours, to eat, drink, smoke, and shout nonsense ”

“ Everybody drinks; the old folks force the young ones, and even children, to drink. All congratulate each other, kiss, hug, shout, sing songs, at times get moved by sentiments, other times show bravado, and yet other times get offended; everybody talks, nobody listens; voices are raised, quarrels start, sometimes fights. ”

“ People live on weekdays, eat moderate healthy food, work hard, and communicate friendly. This continues for weeks, sometimes months, and suddenly that good life breaks for no apparent reason. One day everybody at once stop working and from the middle of the day begin to eat rare tasty meals, start drinking stocked in advance beer and vodka. ”

“ It would seem that people at the opposite levels of education, the savage men and the most educated people of Russia: crude men celebrating the Epiphany or Kazan, and educated people celebrating precisely the day of education, should be celebrating their holidays totally differently. Meanwhile, it turns out that the celebration of the most educated people do not differ by anything except for the outer form, from the celebration by the most wild people. Crude men join the celebration of the Epiphany or Kazan without any relation to the meaning of the holiday, to eat and drink ”

“ Crude men eat striden-jelly and noodles, the educated ones — lobster, cheese, soups, filets, etc.; men drink vodka and beer, enlightened — different varieties of drinks: wine, vodka, liqueur, dry, and strong and light, and bitter and sweet, and white and red, and champagnes. Crude men’s meal cost between 20 kopecks and 1 ruble; the meal of the enlightened ones costs between 6 and 20 rubles per person. Crude men talk about their love to their extended families and sing Russian songs ”